The Walrus and the Warwolf, described as an anti-bildungsroman by China Mieville.
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Covers
Cover for The Walrus and the Warwolf (Paizo - Planet Stories)
by Kieran Yanner
Original Artwork for The Walrus and the Warwolf (Paizo - Planet Stories)
by Kieran Yanner
Mystery Cover for The Walrus and the Warwolf (Paizo - Planet Stories)
by Ben Wootten. Never published? Instead used for The skyline and harbor of Absalom.
Mysterious Original Artwork for The Walrus and the Warwolf (Paizo - Planet Stories)
by Ben Wootten
Artwork
The cover art for this volume is by Steve Crisp.
Hugh's Thoughts
"The Walrus and the Warwolf was a big hit with the people who might be described as my hard-core fans. By this stage, the series was already critically short of readers, but those who got this far reported finding themselves amply rewarded.
"The Walrus and the Warwolf is a very long book but it was easy to write for a number of reasons. First, I had finally gotten myself a word processor which allowed me to save text to disk - everything I had written previously had been done on a typewriter. (The Wizards and the Warriors, which is another very long book, went through three typewritten drafts.)
"The second reason why The Walrus and the Warwolf was easy to write was because by this time I was writing full-time. I had become a full-time professional writer … in fact, I had the privilege of writing full-time for about seven years, until the money finally ran out.
"As I was ignorant of the fact that by this stage the Chronicles of an Age of Darkness series was in deep trouble in the marketplace - in retrospect, I think someone gently tried to communicate this to me, but I was too ignorant to take the hint - I was feeling extremely optimistic.
"In addition to time, technology and optimism, I had chosen an easy structure. The Walrus and the Warwolf focuses on a single character, Drake Douay, and it is a picaresque novel - that is to say, one about the adventures of rogues. It is very easy to control a novel which consists of a single hero having a string of adventures, so technically, despite its great length, this was a very easy novel to write.
"For the American market, a decision was made to cut the book into three separate volumes. I was asked to suggest where to make the breaks, which I did, and my suggestions were accepted. At that stage I was untroubled by the news that the book would be published in fragments, as the considerable length, coupled with the picaresque structure, made it perfectly reasonable to think that three novels could be made out of the single original text.
"I was also asked to write three pieces of introductory material, one for each of the projected three books, to try to compensate for the breaks. I did this, too.
"However, in the end, only one of the three books was published. After that, nothing happened with regard to the next two volumes. In the United States, the status of the The Walrus and the Warwolf was that one third had been published as Lords of the Sword … and after that, nothing.
"This remains the worst thing that has happened to me in the course of my writing career."
Characters
Drake Douay
Jon Arabin
Slagger Mulps
Reviews
In Praise of Stupid Boys by China Mieville
Chronicles of an Age of Darkness - Cold Iron & Rowan Wood
The Walrus and the Warwolf - Dangerous Dan's Book Blog
Book Review - The Walrus and the Warwolf - BSCreviews
The Walrus and the Warwolf - LibraryThing
Lords of the Sword - LibraryThing
Where to Buy
The Walrus and the Warwolf - Lulu
The Walrus and the Warwolf - Amazon